From most accounts, this online tsunami of heartfelt confessionals erupted after actress Alyssa Milano tweeted those words to cast a light on sexual harassment and assault in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

A countless number of women, young and old, famous, the not-so-famous and the voiceless ones now finding the confidence or motivation to find voice, posted moving videos or statements about their own stories of abuse.

I felt compelled to write “Me Too” on my Facebook page simply as a show of solidarity. I’ve never been sexually harassed in the workplace or forced to fend against unwanted advances by someone who can hire or fire you or make or break your career.

But, as I wrote four years ago in this column, I was sexually abused as a child. There’s a kinship of ordeal that transcends gender.

I know a few reasons why people remain silent. I know what it is like to be the vulnerable object of domination by someone, often a loved one, who has power and influence over you. I know what it is like to blame one’s self and not the abuser.

My late mother, a manual labor factory worker who barely spoke English when she came to the mainland from Puerto Rico, told me decades later how she warded off inappropriate comments and touching by co-workers and bosses. One supervisor propositioned her to go with him on a weekend getaway. Though a single mom who greatly depended on the income, she left that job the following week.

I was taken aback when a commentator called sexual harassment a “full-blown epidemic.”

No, it is not. The common meaning of epidemic is “a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.”

It should be more accurately described as a perennial problem since the beginning of mankind. It could be argued such abuse was more rampant, tolerated, even legally protected in the past and more hidden than now. Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood mogul alleged to have sexually harassed or forced aspiring actresses and others in the film industry to perform sex acts, is but the latest and most notable example of this kind of predatory behavior.

Not everyone is squarely on board with the tone and expanding scope of the “me too” movement. Two divergent views from across the pond caught my attention this week.

“#MeToo tells us far more about the desire of some women to reach for victimhood status,” wrote Joanna Williams in the Spectator, a weekly British magazine loosely aligned with that nation’s conservative party.

“The #MeToo social media revelations blur the boundary between sexual assault and sexual harassment,” she added. “140 character reports of having been raped are placed on a par with tweets about name calling, whistling and groping.

“The #MeToo process helps create a false impression that all men are sexually abusive and simply waiting for an opportunity to assault innocent and defenceless women,” she added.

That’s one take.

Commentator Heather Jo Flores was more blunt in pointing out that nothing will change until we do something about male violence and systemic patriarchal control:

“And this is why I refuse to post this #metoo thing. Not because I haven’t been harassed and abused but because y’all already know that likely every woman you have ever met has dealt with this crap,” Flores writes in the Independent, a British online newspaper.

“Men, it’s not our job to keep reminding you,” she added. “Remind each other, and stop abusing. It’s as simple as that. Until men speak out against men who abuse, this will never stop.”

Both raise valid points. And it’s all good because, like life itself, not one view or another is absolute or perfect or irrefutable. There’s a bit of truth here, there and everywhere.

There have been calls to establish an “#IHave” hashtag so that men who have engaged in such conduct come out and own up to their transgressions. I also suggest an “#IHaveNot” for the majority of men who have not engaged in such conduct, or “#IHaveDoneSomethingAboutIt” for men and women who have taken steps to call out abusers in their midst and tried holding them accountable or taking them behind the woodshed. I won’t name names.

I reached out to the two key women in my life. My wife has not been harassed at work. My daughter is the acorn that did not fall far from the parental tree. She’s the “don’t (expletive deleted) with me” type who has no hesitation at all to call out such conduct. We also raised our son to respect and not objectify females. Both are aware of what happened to me as a child and realize now why I was super vigilant while they were growing up about overnighters or folks who triggered my gut instincts or BS meter.

But this #MeToo? We can dissect it, spin it, analyze it to death, or find fault in some manner. I believe it has helped to empower many women — and some men — from all walks of life to break the silence and tell their story. And if it helps individuals or raises more awareness, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Me too works for me.

From smoking crack in a Harlem drug den for a front-page exposé to covering the deaths of 86 people in a Bronx social club fire, Rubén Rosario spent 11 years as a writer for the New York Daily News before joining the Pioneer Press in 1991 as special correspondent and city editor. He launched his award-winning column in 1997. He is by far the loudest writer in the newsroom over the phone.

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